The dragons spoke of a day when they would be free.
Free of the chains that bound them to obey the will of the greedy human race and its cruel King.
There was a legend of old, it spoke of a human who bore the heart of a dragon.
The one that would...
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(Chapter 8) The Plan
"Normal" - Human language "Dragonese" Dragon's language
~*~ Author POV
Jimin was panicking. He had quite the dilemma on his hands.
After continuing his conversation with Cadel about dragons and the capital he was scared for the Dragon trailing behind their group, bound by chains.
He worried that the dragon would be hurt, taken advantage of. Those who captured and pulled the dragon along hadn't seen the intelligence in the reptile's eyes. Hadn't heard the screams of help and leave me alone.
But Jimin had.
So now he sat in the position he had been trapped in. On one hand he was scared to betray the groups trust, he wasn't quite sure what they truly thought of him.
Plus since he had grown up in the countryside, he wasn't aware of the laws in the capital regarding dragons other than to disobey was a death sentence.
But on the other end of the dilemma scales lay the dragon and his freedom.
The dragon was a beast that shouldn't be bound to the land, he had wings after all. He was made to soar the skies, admittedly they could spread terror with the fire that burns hot inside them.
Jimin wanted to see the dragon freed, but he had just had a lengthy discussion with Cadel about dragons in the capital, a freed dragon the next day would look suspicious. And all the arrows would be pointing at Jimin.
So Jimin tried another method, he had a good level of intelligence despite his cut off eduction to help assist in his father's butchers business.
~*~
"Cadel what trials do people have to take to be a dragon rider?" Jimin asked out of the blue on the 2nd day away from the capital.
"They have to tame a dragon to a competent level. Then they demonstrate their bond with the dragon in combat before the King. If the King approves you may become a rider." Cadel answered.
"Could I try to tame the dragon with us?" Jimin asked, it felt too sudden when it came from his mouth. But it was too late to take it back.
Cadel's eyes widened.
"You want to what?" Cadel's voice was full of disbelief.
"I just thought I really want to be a rider. Plus the dragon hasn't attacked us since it was captured. It may be young enough to train" Jimin started spewing out reason after reason hoping Cadel would latch onto one of them.
"I suppose you could try. But I warn you to be careful, dragons are cunning and deceitful. Not to be trusted. I will have guards assigned to watch over training and protect you if need be" Cadel seemed unsure of the decision.
But he sure as heck he wouldn't tell the young boy that the only reason he caved was due to to pleading, irresistible puppy dog like eyes.
Jimin thanked the captian and fell back to rejoin the group. He was feeling quite accomplished.
If he could prove the dragon was 'trained' by him then they could have a better chance of staying together. It eased the panic in Jimin's chest of the unknown future the dragon could have, least he had a shot of making a slightly better future for the young beast.
One that was less likely to get them both killed.
~*~
They stopped to have lunch the next day. Cadel had informed the group of Jimin's decision to try and tame the dragon. So they had all turned to face the pair, either to cheer him on or tease him when his plan failed.
The dragon had been release of some outer chains. He still didn't have full range of movement but it was more than he had had over the past few days.
Jimin pulled out the dry meat from his saddle pack, it would look more believable if he trained a starving dragon with food.
Murdock and Ho-jin were already jeering at him, clearly not ones to drop grudges. Jimin ignored them as best he could.
He approached the dragon, it looked at him with inquisitive eyes.
Jimin wasn't sure of the first thing to do to 'train' a dragon.
So he tried the first thing that came to mind. Just like he had seen people do with their pet dogs.
"Sit?" Jimin tried, though it sounded more like a question than anything.
The dragon tilted his head to the side confused. He couldn't understand the word Jimin said.
The knights all snickered, Cadel was full of relief, he hoped that with the dragon's lack of interest that the young boy of 15 would stop on his foolish attempt to tame the dragon.
So Jimin tried again.
He sat down, gestured to himself.
"Sit" Jimin tried again.
Now with a visual representation of what Jimin wanted to do the dragon dropped down so he was in a crouch. It was close enough so Jimin gave him some of the dried meat from the package.
Cadel had to admit he was impressed by the ingenuity of the young boy, perhaps his plan would work. But Cadel wasn't an optimist, he had seen to much war for that, so he prepared for the worst case scenario as well.
But every part of him wished for the boy's success, he had a fire in his eyes. It was part of why Cadel had taken him on as his personal apprentice despite not liking the notion.
He watched a little more as the dragon listened and mimicked the young boy. Happy to gobble up the dried meat that was offered.
Perhaps a younger Cadel would have felt bad at how fast the dragon accepted the food, not liking to starve the beast. But the older wiser Cadel knew the dragons better than that. Had seen them in battle, watched them in war.
Jimin was the epitomine of a young Cadel, Cadel only hoped he could wisen the boy up faster, but for now he would allow him to feed the dragon from his hands.
Because Jimin still had the thing Cadel had lost a long time ago.
